In Shadows
by TaquetoCagy
Summary: Everybody's got something to hide. When it comes to trying to heal the past that broke her, Mai doesn't realize how close the answer she has been seeking is to her, and just how much danger it is about to plunge Spargus City into. Rated T for language.
1. Prologue

The pain was overwhelming.  
There was nothing she could see beyond that pain, there was only a blinding white light about her. Every fiber of her being was stretching, expanding, her nerves felt like they were exploding. In the light, there were flecks of color, and she felt her feet lift off the ground, felt angel wings beat at her back. Her nerves blasted with pain, her skin felt hot, her mind was sharp and the light around her burned.

_I have got to protect them_.

Why was she doing this. She shouldn't care. She'd reached the goal. She'd been lied too, tricked. She'd also won and she'd also lived and she'd also pieced things backed together. But if the target was acquired already, she wondered, why would she been sending every ounce of energy she had out into the air around her.

From her back, she felt angel wings beat.  
A sharp mind could not overtake the waves of pain. She was forgetting, she was disappearing, her being was breaking in the air around her. It came in waves across her, it washed through her body like the wind did the treetops.

_Gotta protect them. _

_Gotta..._

Why was she doing this...?  
She couldn't remember.  
She felt wings at her back.  
her head rolled with another wave of the pain.  
Why was she doing this?  
She didn't know anymore.

_I gotta..._

And with one shattering cry, the light around her broke. It fluttered in the air around her in pieces, between them she could see the ground below. She could see the faces of friends dotting it, their expressions turned upward at her.

In a moment brief and quiet, she looked. Her own skin glowed, but the glowing layer of skin seemed to be flecking off as she started to fade, and the glass-like light around her began to fall. The sound matched and she could hear it shattering faintly. Her ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton. As she moved her hands up to touch her ears, she noticed more of her light flecked off as she moved, falling like snowflakes around her. She pulled her hands from her ears, confused when they came away bloody. The red was sharp and pronounced against her skin.

When that one quiet moment was over, she broke. Her magic shattered, her power faded, and she fell from the sky in a crumpled heap on the ground below.

_I just needed to protect them._


	2. Chapter 1: Running

To my readers, new and old:

This is a story I have seriously been playing around with since Junior High, but I've never been able to figure out how to start it. I'm choosing what I think is best and going from there. To let you know how long this struggle has been about seven-eight years now. I'm still not entirely happy with the changes to the prologue but I have to start the story somehow.  
I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I have enjoyed developing it. There will be bonus artwork to accompany this story on my Deviant, such as chapter covers and illustrations of various characters

Also, thank you Migzie Cute for the review on the prologue. I appreciate it c:

* * *

_Chapter 1: Running_

It had been a beautiful morning, by all rights. The first spring day not to be shrouded in Fog and rain, the first warm day the city had seen, and it was like the townsfolk were coming to life underneath it. Even with their normal routines through the same warn paths on the city streets, things seemed a little brighter that day in Haven City.

I pulled my hood up, stepping out from the shadows of the building I was hunching behind. The Slums had never been a great place, but in my life there was no such thing as over caution. At thirteen, I already knew that. I had a father that couldn't leave the house, a baby brother to worry about, and a mother I had lost two years prior when we lost our home, our birthright. More recently, we had lost all of the Outer Barrier to Metal Heads. The new wall, pushed much closer to my current residence, loomed in reminder of what lie outside, what we now called Dead Town. Much of it had been damaged and a lot of it, rumor had it, was already starting to fall in decay. I hadn't been there that day in dead town, but I had been out in the slums. The rush of terrified people into the city - and then, the Baron just. Shut the doors. Left the rest to die.

I had heard of an Underground movement to overthrow the Baron, and secretly I was rooting for them, especially after I had seen what happened that day. Father said we didn't know if we could trust them and even so, the Underground had only started after that day. From what I could see in the Slums, though, they were gaining support fast. The city folk, especially in the slums, had little to hope for. A way out of the hell we were living certainly was something that they, and myself, would cling too. Father still insisted that we were not to approach them, and I knew I was too young and too much a liability to help them. At thirteen, my best course of action was simply support.

Hood up, hair stuffed back into it, I made my way through the throngs of people to get to one of the fruit stalls. I didn't need much today, just a few things. This was supposed to be a quick trip, a quick day out, back home in just a few minutes. That wasn't exactly how it went that day.  
Each Krimson guard that passed by set me on edge, and even if it had been a few years since we lost our home and my mother, and knew that I had grown and changed and wouldn't be immediately recognized, I didn't want to take the chance.

"Ay, little girl!" A happy voice said from behind the fruit stand rang out across the small space between us. One of the guards looked up and paused, probably to see if I was stealing anything until the vendor waved at him, then went on his way, speaking lowly into a communicator. "What can I get for you today? Its been a little while since I've seen you here!"

I nodded, it had been. Guard patrols had been up in the area recently and I didn't want to take the chance trying to get out more than I had too, so I had tried to make our food supply last a little longer than normal. Yet there is only so much you can do before it runs out, and I had a hungry baby brother to feed.

I chanced a glance up at the vendor. He believed me to be shy, but he was a hard person not to like. Cracked lines zigzagged across his face and his wizened hands were always busied with trying to organize the fruit in his stand. "Has business been good?" I asked quietly.  
He made a "Humm?" sound like he didn't quite hear me, leaning in before it registered . "Little girl, I am an old man, you must speak up for me!" He laughed, then paused before answering my question. "Business has been fine, little one, do not worry for old men like me. Now what can I get for you today?"

I smiled, and handed him a small wad of money. "Whatever I can get with this."  
He laughed again, counted, and then proceeded to fill my bag with various fruit and vegetables When it was heavy and sagged with the weight, he bid me good day and I darted back for the safety of my home.

We lived in the basement of another family's small home. They were just two, Kaia and her daughter Flycker, who we all called Ly for short. When we had nowhere else to turn they had graciously accepted us into their home. The living quarters were small but they had been gracious hosts, as our burden had been quite a thing to take on. For two years we had lived there quietly. Sometimes at night, very rarely, Father would venture outside to stretch his legs with Kaia and they would walk for a few hours. Father usually did not leave the house, because he knew he had to keep my brother and I safe, but there's only so much cooped up that people can deal with.

Kaia opened the door with little Ly peaking out behind her when I arrived back home. "Good morning, Mai!" Kaia greeted me, pulling me into a warm embrace. "I didn't even see you go out this morning. Ly was looking for you. I'm glad you made it home safely!"

"Yes." I grinned. "Ly, are you staying out of trouble?" I asked, turning to the girl. She was nine, tall for her age and thin. Electric blue hair stuck out in spikes around her face, cut short because she had managed to get a candy stuck in it a few weeks ago.

"I just wanted to play!" She pouted, folding her arms. "And you weren't home!"

"Mai had to pick up food for her family, dear." Kaia said, trying to sooth her daughter. "Let her go and see her family before she comes back up to play."

Ly was still pouting, but I thanked them and made my way down into the basement, fiddling with the false panel in the floor and sliding it back, then dropping into the room below.

The "Room" was more like a studio apartment. A small kitchen and bathroom sat adjacent to a larger room with a set of bunk-beds and a hammock, a little table with chairs, and a tiny fireplace. My brother was searching his toy box for something and my father was lying in the hammock, staring at me as a dropped down into the room. My brother jumped, then ran over and hugged my legs. I ruffled his hair and smiled at him before he toddled off to the toy box again before I approached my father.

"Daddy," I smiled, "You know that keeping the workout equipment under the hammock might prove dangerous if it ever falls?"

My father grunted, smiling at me. "What did you bring back, Mai?"

I opened the bag, full of fruit, and tossed him one. "Some of your favorites." I smiled, the approving look from my father filling me with childish glee. I knew the danger we lived in, but sometimes I still just wanted my father to be proud of me. He stroked my long hair and cupped my face in his hands.  
"You do good work, daughter. I'm going to make us supper, is there anything you would like?"

I shook my head, there wasn't anything in particular I wanted, so I just handed him the bag. As he stood, I took my leave and went over to the box to play with my brother before supper.

"Whatcha' doin' buddy?" I grinned, my brother's happy smile spreading across his face as he rolled a ball between his hands. I plucked it from him and he giggled, watching me step back to roll the ball across the floor at him. "I hope you were good for Daddy today."

From the kitchen I heard my father grunt. "He's a good boy, he's always good."

It was here that my day would turn to the one that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

Kaia dropped into room, face red and eyes anxious. She approached my father and was gesturing wildly with her hands, not bothering to keep her voice down. "Ly went outside to play while she waited for Mai to come back up, and noticed a guard nearby on a radio, something about identifying the girl and had found their location… somebody recognized Mai this morning, we have to get out now. The guards will be on their way!"

My father threw the rest of the fruit he hadn't yet sliced back in the bag and tossed it over his shoulder, and I ran to grab another bag filled with clothes and basic items we would need. Surely there would be another safe house… Kaia would know were to go…

My father and I, hoods up as we darted into the city above us, dove for the cover of a crowd. Kaia and Ly were heading for a relative's house and we were running for our lives. Kaia had told us how to get to the Underground, it was the last place that we could go.

"By order of Baron Praxis, you are under arrest!" a Krimson Guard yelled from behind me, with a yelp my father pulled me and my brother into a run, his little legs struggling to keep up. I pulled him into my arms and sprinted, hood flying off. It was too late now, our only chance was to run.

Our only chance led us to a trap. Hellcats had the sky and foot troops had the ground, there was no escape. I pressed up against my father, still clutching my brother who's face was buried in my chest, and then my father was shot with the tazer gun. Shot after shot rang out at him, and my voice went hoarse from a scream as my father choked out "Run!"

I didn't make it far, surrounded, I tried to barrel my way through two of the guards, and was hit with the butt end of a rifle, my brother ripped from my arms as I collapsed. I tried to stand, head pounding and vision fuzzy, reaching for my brother who was scooped up by a man in a suit. The man dropped him when my brother, kicking and screaming, decided to bite the man's arm. "After the brat!" The man said, pointing as my brother ran into a crowd and disappeared. He was rubbing the bite on his arm when I got back up, yelling a rather loud curse at the man. He snarled, and as if that snarl was a command another guard hit me again. I fell back, but I don't recall hitting pavement. I don't recall hitting anything. My world was dark.

When the world came back to me, slowly and fuzzy, the first thing I could remember seeing was a sun painted on the ceiling. Next was the sound of running water, and the warm blow of air across my bare arms. I blinked hard a few times, trying to clear my head, trying to figure out were I was.  
"Don't sit up. The Monk's said you would be lucky if you woke up at all, after the blow you took to your head." A small voice said from my right, causing me to jump and jerk upward. The sharp pain that lanced across my scalp caused me to regret that move immediately and come crashing back down onto a pillow behind me. Spots dotted my vision, the edges fading back out. I became aware then that I was laid out on a stone floor, the pillow behind me and a small cushion underneath me. I didn't want to think of how much bashing my skull on the ground would have hurt, so I was grateful. "Told 'ya." the little voice spoke again.

I looked slowly to my right, to find my eyes meeting with rather large green ones. A girl, with waves of dark hair and no older than myself looked back at me, curiously. "Purple is a weird eye color." She stated, before she ran cold water across my forehead, squeezing a sponge she held above my face. "They said you're hurt real bad, but you don't need to worry. You woke up, so I think you'll be fine." She nodded to herself, turning to dip the sponge back into the little pond we were situated next to. Behind her I could see statues and what looked like a throne. Dark tinted windows lined the walls.

"Where are we?" I croaked, voice cracking and throat raw.

"Sounds like you need a drink." The girl said, ignoring my question and bringing a bowl of water up to my lips. I eyed her suspiciously as she helped me prop my head up, and then sipped at it. "We're in Spargus. I forget the Haven people don't know about us very well." She paused for a moment, as if thinking how to continue. "We're in the Wasteland, I grew up here. My name is Arella."

My head was swimming suddenly, my father, my brother.. We obviously had been banished, which was far better than the execution I had expected in this situation. But were was my family? I looked up at the girl again, stomach dropping with dread. "Were is my father? My brother?"

Arella looked confused for a moment. "Your dad is with our King right now, but there wasn't a brother with you. He must have been left in the city."  
From the sudden look of panic that flashed across Arella's face, I could tell, and so could she, that that was the very moment my heart broke.


	3. Chapter 2: Flying

"Wait. Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait!" I hissed, feet slipping again against the cold, damp rocks. "You know I can't do this as fast as you!"  
A dark-haired, green eyed girl laughed as she climbed along the rocks in the ruins of the Wasteland Temple. She was several feet in front if me, turning back to grin occasionally at me. She, though years of practice, could navigate the rocks without much of an issue. I, however, suppressed shakes every time I looked down. Huge chasms, black with untold depth, haunted the back of my mind with each jump. Which each quick step, each and every single time my feet slid even the slightest bit beneath me it got worse. "Arella!" I called, a whine creeping into the edge of my voice.

She laughed again, beckoning me over with her hands. "C'mon! We're almost there! You're doing really great today!" She yelled the last half of her sentence over a small fit of coughs coming from my small body. "Besides, don't you want to see what's on the other side of this thing?"

It had been a few months since I had come to Spargus City. My father, having earned his right in the Arena, had gained our acceptance into the city. Most days, he was busy working and I was busy training, trying to play catch-up to my peers. More often then not though, I fell sick. Ever since we'd gotten here, I'd been ill, almost bedridden. Today I had finally been feeling well enough to take up Arella's offer on going on an "adventure" with her. She'd been pressing the manner for several weeks.

"You should come if you're feeling well!" She had begged this morning, after once again asking how I was feeling. "I wanna show you something!" She'd been so excited over whatever it was. I sniffled, coughed again and met eyes with her.  
"C'mon!" She beckoned again.

I sighed, I jumped...

I tripped again as I landed but I had made it over the chasm, falling over myself and onto my hands and knees on the other side. My palms stung where I had skinned them, tiny bits of debris digging into my palms and knees. Beside me, Arella laughed. "You made it! That's good!" She tugged at my elbow, helping me up off the ground. I was coughing again. "You alright?"

"Yeah" I sighed as the coughing fit came to a close. "So... where are we going anyway?"

"Right over here!" Arella beamed, pointing. There was a small ledge, just big enough to walk across if you pressed yourself up against the wall, that lead to a room. It was well hidden, you couldn't see it from where we had originally come in at, trying to jump the gaps to get here.  
Arella and I had become almost inseparable during the few months I had been in Spargus. It was weird, I thought, to have a friend my age, and while I was still trying to adjust to this new life we had landed in. She had been the one thing to keep my mind focused, after the loss of my home, my brother...

That one still sent a pang through my chest.

We stepped on the other side of the platform, safe and in one piece. Arella darted into the room without a second though, and I followed after her, the light sounds of our footsteps echoing off the walls as we did so.

The room itself was dimly lit, precursor carvings lined the walls. There was a closed door on one side, though it did not open with Arella approached it. There was the base to an Eco vent situated in the center of the floor too "What's in there?" I asked curiously.

She shrugged. "I dunno. That's not what we're here for though!" She said, looking over her shoulder at me as she felt along the walls. "This is a secret room! Do you know how important that is?"

I didn't respond, instead I crossed my arms. "There's little chambers with Eco Vents and doors all over this Temple, Rel. There isn't anything in here we haven't seen already."

"That's where you're wrong!" Arella said as she continued bouncing along the wall, hopping over a few inches as she felt all along the wall. Suddenly, as she passed her fingers over a precursor symbol, the Eco Vent turned on. White Eco spilled out from it, wafting around the base in white vapors. Light shot up toward the ceiling, lighting the room much more intensely then any of the lights in this room had ever hoped to do. Arella squealed as I stepped back from the vent, surprised. "Look, look I turned it on!" She hopped in place.

"You're lucky you didn't find yourself a Dark Eco vent, then we'd be dead!" I yelped from near the archway we had come in at. "Lets go!"  
"No, no, Mai you don't get it!" Arella said, she met my gaze with a sudden seriousness.  
I stared at her for a brief moment."Rel, there's Light Eco vents that were way closer than this one."  
"You don't get it!" she groaned, dragging out the I for a couple seconds on the last word. "This room, Mai? Its not on any of the maps. Not a single one." She shrugged a small pack off her shoulders and let it thump to the ground. I inched closer as she pulled out a map, lying it on the dusty temple floor. "See? This is the chamber we came in at..." She pointed to part of the map with her index finger. "And this is where this room should be." She slid her hand over to the right a couple centimeters. She was right - it was blank. "Which means," She rotated herself back then, moving to look behind herself and point at the locked door "That nobody knows what's in there and that is what I want to know."

"Huh" I breathed, sniffling again. Maybe she'd been right, maybe this could be a fun adventure after all. "Any idea on how to open it?" I asked curiously. Surely if she was offering to bring me here she would have some idea on opening it.

"Ah... um, well actually no..." She rubbed the back of her neck, looking sheepish. "But! I'm sure that if I can turn a light Eco vent on then I should be able to open a door right? What's so hard about doors?" She turned her back to me then, approaching the strange door at the back of the chamber. I turned my attention to the shimmering light Eco vent in front of me.

I'd never seen Light Eco up close before. I had heard of it, knew the Monks had several vents in this temple... But I'd never actually seen the stuff. It was pretty, I thought, the way the little speckles of colors hung in the light. I reached a hand out to it. Light Eco was fairly harmless, from what I'd read. Could I feel it if I touched it? Would I just pass through it like one passes through light? My curiosity got the best of me and, sniffling, I reached out a hand to touch the strange substance.

I cried out. The sensation was like an electric shock, and it ran from my fingertips through my entire body. I snatched myself back away from the Eco Vent, pulling my hand up against my chest as Arella snapped around to see what the noise was about. "Mai...?"

I half-smiled at her. "Don't worry." I said "It zapped me, that's all."

Arella continued her stares. "You look like you're made of glow-y frosted glass."

"What?" I looked back down at my fingers. Sure enough, they glowed faintly back at me. I could feel my whole body tingling with the Eco. "Oh, my god. What... what's happening to me?"

"Something that's really really cool!" Arealla stepped forward, plunging her hand into the beam of the Eco vent. She pouted when nothing happened. "Well, that's not fair." She sighed. "Does it feel funny?"

"No... it kinda tingles, and I don't feel sick anymore either." I said, reaching my arms out in front of me to examine myself further. Even my sleeves had turned colors, everything was white and glowing faintly. "Wait, Arella!"  
I gasped suddenly, realizing that this actually was pretty bad. "I can't go back like this!"

Arella pouted again. "Well... lets go talk to the Monks, I guess. Maybe they can fix it?"

I nodded. They might get mad at us for just messing with a light Eco vent but it would be nothing to what my father might do if I came back this way. I took a deep breath as we took our leave, Arella shutting off the Eco Vent however she had managed to get it turned on and we went to navigate again over the rocks.

She could bound her way over the rocks with grace, and I, even in this new glowing state was still struggling. Just as before, Arella giggled up ahead and assured me I was doing fine. My feet slipped as I took another jump, and when I landed I fell backward off the rock into the void below.

"Arella!" I shrieked, dropping down into darkness. I heard my name eco off the rocks above. I was panicking, hyperventilating as I was sure I was about to meet sudden death on the rocks below. I needed a way out, I needed to fly.

With a sharp pang, it happened then. Wings issued from my back. Large, looking like they were made of crystals. I pumped them hard, and forced my way back up. I wasn't sure what I was doing, my body was still curled up in fear as I made my way back up to the surface. I hovered above the rocks for a moment before I dropped back down. "I can fly!" I shrieked, half elated and still half panicked. "I CAN FLY!"

Arella snatched me up in a hug, shaking, laughing, as the light eco left me, making a small puff of light particles that disappeared in a second afterward. When she let me go, we made our way out of the room, off to see the monks.


	4. Chapter 3: Dawning

_Hello everyone! Thank you for reading "In Shadows," It means a lot to me! _  
_I'd like to apologize for how long this update has taken. I moved cross-country and that has taken up a lot of my time, but I hope to be back on the ball now. Please, enjoy my story! Feedback is always appreciated~ (Though this chapter is a little slow as we work toward more exciting things!) Special shout out to my friend FlygonNick, who tolerates my shenanigans and gives me advice on my story type stuff n' things. Go read his stuff, its good for you. _

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Five years passed.  
Five dry winters, five scorching summers. Five years had moved past without so much as a flash of mercy for those it affected, and it slipped away with little regret and little regard for what the people it so often tormented thought about that.

It had been five years since I had been laid out on that stone floor, receiving the news and watching Arella react to seeing my heart shatter in front of her. Five years since I had been told my brother was gone. I could only imagine the worst, as nobody would bring me any real answers through the course of those five years. Five years since I Arella had snuck me out of the Palace and into the Arena to see my father earn our right into the city. Five years I spent there, learning to fight so that I may someday prove myself in that arena. Five years since Arella had accidentally lead me to discovering light eco powers. Five years of training and fighting, five years had let me grow up and leave childhood behind. They'd gone by, both long and fast.

Five years since the dawn of my new life.

* * *

There was always a certain kind of beauty in the way dawn crept over the Wasteland. Golden fingers of sunlight streaked across inky skies, dying it in hues of lavenders and pinks. It blended with the fading glow of a setting moon and strange, green sun. They traced their way across jagged, rough mountains that rose above the sand. They moved their way across the river, and between the cacti that called the wasteland home. All manner of creatures came out to welcome it, before the sun's mood would turn sour and begin to scorch everything that it could. For now, its touch was gentle as it moved across the sandy ground, and up over the walls of Spargus city. The metal rooftops glinted in the early glow, the ocean that bordered the city's other side sparkled with it, and the people of Spargus woke to another day in the Wasteland.

I greeted almost every day in this manner. Propped up on a mound of pillows, hands laced behind my head as I watched the sunrise though my honeycomb-shaped window. A sheet was tossed across my bare legs, and I was sprawled out across the thin bed.

I'd lost count of how many sunrises I had seen creep across the wasteland. For the last five years I had watched them sweep across dark skies and warm the earth. I had watched them caress the people of Spargus with warmth. I had watched the ocean sparkle with its light. Sunrise was my favorite time of day, both for its beauty and its calm. The world was quiet at sunrise. It was a time I could think, could breath, away from the eyes of friends and strangers. I could be pensive. But most importantly, the sunrise was the time of day I could let myself touch the surface of the memories that had shaped the last five years of my life. So I did.

The Monk's don't usually have much to sat, but they did have a lot to say on how the Eco had affected my body. Theories _why _and _how_ but no real answers, no real proof, and no idea what to do next, so it was then that it was decided I would continue my training with the monks, to be paid for with maintenance around the Temple. Arella got sucked into this as well.

Still, I couldn't help my mind traveling to less pleasant thoughts as well.  
_...running through the streets of another city, the pull of my father's hand, the guards that lumbered after. Hot white fear...the raising of a gun... _

With a loud slam, the door to my room crashed open and hit the wall. Perfect timing too, with the memory, and it startled me. I yelped loudly and sprang upright, perched on the edge of the bed like I was ready to attack the person on the other side of that door.

I was greeted with laughter. "G'morning, Mai." She grinned, not in the slightest bit sorry. She brushed dark hair away from her green eyes as she spoke.

"I've told you to knock." I glared, sitting back on the bed, folding my arms.

Over the last five years, there had been very few times Arella and I had been parted from each other for very long. She had helped take care of me when I had first arrived in Spargus. with her help, I had become healthy, and had started training with her. Through closeness of quarters and time we had become friends.

"Yeah well, it is what it is." she shrugged, shifting her weight to her right leg. She placed a hand on the hip that protruded as a result. "Now that you're done peeling yourself off the ceiling, need I remind you that we have shit we need to do today? Sara will kill us if we're late. Y'know, _again_." She stressed the last word.

"I am well aware of what she'll do, thanks." I sighed, stretching and getting up out of bed. I was absolutely no stranger to Sara and her reaction to lateness. Laziness. Slacking off. If you were under her instruction, you had best be there to pay attention. "Let me get dressed and I'll be down."

Arella was completely un-phased by me standing in little more than my under-garments. "Better be. I swear, Mai, I will leave your ass here. I'm not risking her getting mad at me over you."

"Noted. You're so _nice_ to me." I growled, rolling my eyes as she retreated back into the hall, the door shutting behind her with a soft click. I snorted at it in mild irritation as I headed to the dresser with a yawn, pushing off the bed to stand. The stone floor was cold underneath my bare feet.

The bedroom was small but contained the essentials. A bed, nightstand and a dresser. A small desk occupied a section of wall across from the bed, and next to that a small wash-stand with a small square mirror hanging above it. Crossing the room only took a couple paces. All the rooms in the dorms were small, meant for functionality over space.

I pulled a blue shirt on over the tank-top I'd worn to bed and slid on a light-brown pair of shorts, black strips hung down off the side for decoration and a red stripe circled the thighs. They were my favorite, made from a soft fabric from Kras. Many things had changed during the Combat Races - money had found its way to Spargus. With the coming of the combat races had also brought influences from other places to the city - one being the colorful styles of dress many of the younger inhabitants had picked up.

I finished getting dressed a second later, pulling on socks and boots over my feet. They made a dull noise against the tiles as I moved the couple of steps to the wash-stand, running a brush through the hair that ran down to the middle of my back. Brown at the top, it faded to blonde at the tips. I had a round face, wide, flat nose and thin lips. Almond shaped, violet eyes peered back at me, inspecting those features for what had to have been the thousandth time. Yet again, a fleeting memory of my mother ran through my head - I looked just like her.  
With a sigh I slammed the brush down, brushed my teeth, snatched up a bag that contained my training gear and strode out of the room. With any luck, I could leave the memories behind me today. Locked in this room, where they couldn't bother me today.

The hallway was already warmer then the room was, a testament to the climate outside. Both sides of the hall were lined with doors adorned with thin painted numbers. Lights hung from above, and the floor was made from the same stone in the rooms. At one end of the hall was the showers - the other direction let to the main room.

My boots thudded softly against the stone floor as I turned down the hallway toward that main room. It was large and sparsely furnished. One wall was dominated by a bookcase, another by a set of lockers. A few chairs sat near a small waterfall and pond built into a wall. The floor here was decorated in an inlay of a sun - another one mirrored it in the ceiling. I'd only ever seen one other like them in Spargus, and that was in the ceiling of the throne room in the Palace. Directly across from were the hall my room was in was the entrance to the hall that contained the rooms for the boys.

I pushed the door open to the desert outset, stepping across dusty, sand-covered bricks that made up the path to the dorms and blinking at the blast of heat and brightness of the day. Indeed, today was working up to be a scorcher. But then, it was the middle of the summer so to expect anything different was a futile thought at best.

"Finally, you've decided to join those of us who are living." Arella smirked, green eyes glinting happily underneath her dark hair. She was taller and leaner than me. She was all tank tops, shorts and skirts, all the time.

I squinted at her through the morning sun that was shining directly into my face, and grimaced. "Are you ready to go?"

She picked up a bag and slung it over her shoulder, rolling her eyes with a scoff. "Am I ready. What a question. I wasn't the one who woke up late." She turned on her heel and began to walk toward the garage.

The funds that had been used to build the dorms had also been used to repair the city, which had been damaged heavily in the attack the dark-makers had made here. Even before then, much of the city was damaged from the heavy wind-storms that caked the buildings in sand. The dorm, though, was probably the strongest testament to the damage done during that attack, as housed many of the children and teenagers that had been orphaned during that time. I was no exception, as the Dark Makers had killed my father. With the exception of Arella, I was on my own. We'd been granted rooms in the dorms after they had been built.

Arella bent down slightly, breaking the silence between us this morning by bumping her shoulder into mine. "Something bothering you, Mai? Thinking about your dad?" It wasn't a hard guess. I usually was. Having lost all of my family now, this wound was the freshest, and the hardest to get out of my mind.

I nodded, eying the ground as we walked. "Yeah. The closer we get to finishing our training, the worse its been getting."

Arella smiled softly and patted my shoulder. "He'd be proud of you, remember that." She paused before she jumped subjects, trying to pull my mind off of its current track. "Sara mentioned she's got some special tasks for us today." She reached up absently to scratch the tip of her elongated left ear.

I groaned. Training with Sara at the temple came with very few perks, as we had to travel into the desert and across the little islands to get to the temple every time, risking life and vehicle to the giant squid that called the surrounding seawater home. Occasionally, the Monks would have us help with various repairs they were doing throughout the Temple. Sometimes they did offer us a free meal, and the food was usually good.

"More of those repairs, probably. Getting that temple back into good shape is going to take more than Seem's monks and those of us Sara managed to get to help, I hope she knows that." I sighed.

Arella shrugged, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "I'm sure she knows, but they have to made due for now."

With a puff of dust and groan of metal the garage door opened before us. Thankfully, it was empty, so playing twenty questions with Kleiver as to were we were going, what we were taking and what we planned on doing with it would be avoided this morning. A free dinner was nothing to scoff at in Spargus.

Arella took advantage of my momentary distraction and leaped right into the Dune Hopper, strapping her bag down behind her with a grin. "Looks like I'm going to get to drive today!" She said gleefully, wiggling in the drivers seat as she twisted the steering wheel happily. I made a face that she ignored and climbed in beside her as she tore out of the garage and into the sands of the Wasteland.

I hated it when Arella drove. She was fast and jumpy at the wheel. On more than one occasion she had sent us rolling across the dunes. She forced the dune hopper into the air with no mercy. I found myself clinging to the roll cage with a death grip. My knuckles were white against the gray padding. To my right I could hear Arella laughing gleefully. As much as I hated her driving, she loved to do it. Half her enjoyment came from my terror.

As soon as she had parked in front of the temple, I bailed out of the Hopper, slinging my bag up onto my shoulder and darting inside. Arella followed close at my heels.

Sara was waiting at the entrance, much to my dismay, as we skidded to a halt a few feet from her. Arella let out an audible groan and a stream of low swears. "Goddammit, Mai."

"If you didn't drive like a psycho this wouldn't be an issue!" I hissed back.

Sara sighed irritably, bringing a hand up to her face to pinch the bridge of her nose, eyes shut, brows pulled together in her irritation. "Late." She stated simply.

Sara was a tall woman, fleshed out with lean muscles that contoured her body. She was covered in the finest of precursor armor. Sara was the best fighter among the monks - trained to protect the Temple and those inside. She'd been our mentor over the last five years. Like all monks, her skin was dyed white. Her eyelids were tattooed copper and a thin, yellow strip ran horizontal across the bridge of her nose and cheekbones. She had a swath of dark hair that she yanked back into a bun. To date, I'd only ever seen it down once. She was a woman of very few words, but they were words one did well to take seriously. Her eyes slitted open to glare at us. Behind me I could feel Arella shift under her gaze.

"That's my fault, I'm sorry." I sighed, jerking my arm back to elbow Arella. "I was late getting out the door."

Sara simply sighed, shaking her head. Closing her eyes again, she placed her hands onto her hips "Cleaning."

"C'mon." Arella sighed, exasperated. She hated cleaning, and no doubt Sara was to have us scrub the floors in the statue rooms as a punishment for being late.

"Sorry," I muttered lowly, following Sara down the corridor and into the room with the large statues. The warp gate was on, I noted, then noticed the buckets of soapy water and the brushes for the floor.

"Scrub. All of it." Sara pointed to the bucket. "After, Mai, you fight me."

To my left, Arella snickered.

Today was shaping up to be a _great_, I could tell.


	5. Chapter 4: Training

Hey guys, I do not have the words to express how sorry I am for failing to update this is anything NEAR a timely manner. Without going into to much detail, things got really hectic and I have not been in a good head-space. I am trying to get myself back on track and I am also going to try to get this back on track.

Things are really going to start to pick up after this chapter so please bear with me.

Also thank you FlygonNick for giving me the kick I needed to get this going again. You rock, man. c:  
_

_Chapter 4: Training_

It was fortunate at least that with warm, soapy water and a scrub brush wax came pretty easily off stone floors.

Candles were always lit in this part of the temple, deep down where the largest statues resided. One was tilted dangerously but no one really knew how to go about fixing it. Some time ago, one of the monks told us a story about how Precursors used to speak to whomever they deemed worthy through these statues, using them like Oracles. Of course, none of the monks would admit if they had ever spoken with them. And they certainly had never spoken to me, or Arella.  
Next to me a warp gate thrummed quietly, as Rel and I scrubbed the floor around the mountain of candles by it, getting all of the wax off the floor. Near the doorway to the room sat a box of half-melted ones, as we had just replaced the ones that were getting low with new candles, a new offering.

True to form, Arella was muttering under her breath quietly. Occasionally I picked up a word here and there or a phrase but for the most part she glared and mumbled. "Fuck," She'd hiss angrily at a stubborn piece of wax. "God damn motherfucking Leaper Lizard licking Kangarat fucking piece of shit." she'd grumble to the stuck on pieces of dirt. She hated cleaning, so I left her to it. It kept her to herself for now and provided me with some entertainment, no mater how much she hated it.  
Cleaning was a little more therapeutic for me. It was a quiet way to focus. A quiet way to think and pass the time while remaining busy and productive, even with the occasional interruption of Arella's increasingly elaborate strings of swears. It was an easy way to let my mind wander for a little bit.

When we had first reported to the Monks about the discovery of my Eco Powers, they hadn't believed us. And understandably so. People being able to channel Eco was a rare gift, though not unheard of. Even so, channeling light eco was considered almost impossible. There were reasons it remained largely unharnessed, never mind the fact that it was fairly rare to come across.

Arella and I had elected not to tell the Monks about the room we had discovered. We wanted a chance to try to unlock its secrets ourselves. (A task we still hadn't managed to complete.) So, we lied about where we found the Eco. Arella did most of the talking, swift and convincing. While I had not, until that point, seen light eco in person I'd seen inactive vents all over the temple. Arella had as well and led the monks to one, claiming it was where we had made the discovery. A large, circular room with two round doors. The light eco vent sat atop a round platform ringed by stairs. It was lucky my light eco transformation earlier had healed the small cuts on my skinned knees and palms from slipping on the rocks that morning, or else the Monks probably wouldn't have believed us about it. Arella was a clever girl, almost too much for our own good and as she fiddled around with the carvings on the wall and again managed to click on the vent. This surprised the monks, and she just shrugged it off. "I can read, you know." She smirked.

The monks had me touch the eco again. It was almost electrifying as the first time, though the wings were a little less painful as they erupted from my back. Large and crystal-like; the light in the room that shone through them bent and cast little rainbows all over the floor. The monks had stared. They didn't know what this meant. Neither did I.

It was decided that my powers were to be regarded, for now, as a tightly guarded secret. My father of course, he was told, and I was to start training with the monks as well as continue my regular training within Spargus. Arella was to come along as well. My Father had taken the news with a deep surprise, but agreed that training with the monks was the best for learning to harness these abilities.

Arella cussed again beside me, snapping me from my thoughts for a brief second. "Fucking hell!" she scowled as she sloshed water over the edge of her bucket and down her legs. I chuckled and returned to my task, and my thoughts.

Thirteen year old me had been quiet and sickly. The exposure I had to light eco staved the sickness off for a time, though for now I was restricted from it until it could be decided how my specialized training was to go about. I had chosen during that time to focus on becoming more skilled as a Warrior, to catch up to my peers and one day take my own place in Spargus. However, as more time went by I felt the sickness creeping up on me. Before long I became so ill I was vomiting every time I ate, or drank. I was overcome with fever. I was delirious, and healers in Spargus said it probably wouldn't be long before I met death. My breath rattled. My eyes were glazed. My face lacked color except where it flushed with fever, and my hair was coated in sweat.

My father could barely stand to look at me. Not from disappointment, but in knowing that I, the last member of his family, was about to die. After the loss of my mother and brother it probably would have broken him. The thought of it already had started too.

Arella came to visit one night, sneaking into my room through a window. She had climbed to reach it, under the cover of darkness and moonlight. Unsure of what the sickness was exactly most were completely prohibited from visiting me. She had tucked under her arm what appeared to be a jar wrapped into a thick dark cloth. I didn't really register it much at the time. I was barely coherent.

"I was reading." Arella whispered as she sat on the bed, rolling the jar in her hands, regarding me with concerned eyes that even in near darkness glinted green. Her voice was pitched low as to not alert anyone to her presence. The only light in the room was the moonlight that streamed through the open window behind her. "There are legends, you know, sometimes even lost to the monks in their temple. Buried deep in the books they have stashed away up there." She started to unwrap the jar, though slowly, as though she was afraid to do it all at once. "I was looking for something to help you. A cure, really. And the more I read about the healing abilities of light eco, the more I started to think..." She paused.

"Did you know every body is made up of Eco? Every person. Every thing. We all contain eco. It is our lifeblood, the thing that keeps us going. That's what mom used to say, anyway." She rolled the jar again. "I read in one of those old tomes that channeler's bodies are a little off. Nobody really knows why it happens. But those bodies, with their balance slightly off, they're able to channel certain kinds of eco. Depends on the imbalance, really. But that's what does it." She sighed, then took a deep breath like she was still trying to figure all this out herself as she looked at my frail form. I looked back groggily, breathing heavy and labored. "You're probably too tired to understand this. But I want you to know why I think this is going to work before I try this. The monks haven't let you near Eco since we last activated your powers to show them. Light Eco channeling is incredibly rare - almost a myth, you know? They're being cautious because it can be as dangerous as dark eco in the right applications. Maybe... they're being too worried about it."

She unwrapped the jar the remainder of the way, and light flooded across the room. Light eco beamed from inside the jar.

"Maybe your body is... a little too much off." She held the jar up to her face, squinting at the swirling cloud of light. "Seems to me since you touched this stuff and then the Monks cut you off until further notice, you're worse off. Giving you some... can't hurt, right?"

I coughed, my hand coming away from my face bloody again. Arella handed me a cloth from the nightstand and I weakly wiped it away. "I feel like my body is eating itself." I said hoarsely. "So I can't imagine how it could get any worse."

"Okay." Arella said quietly, putting a hand on the lid of the jar. "Then... then we try this because keeping it from you isn't keeping you normal, or safe, I don't care what they say."

She unscrewed the lid and tipped it upside down, letting the light waft down. It sank slowly, almost boyant. I reached up weakly and touched it, letting it absorb into my fingertips.

Though not an electric feeling like the massive amounts of Light Eco though the vents gave me, it tingled pleasantly as it ran down my arm. It spread, warming my core and eventually traveling down to my toes. While I still felt awful, I felt at least... better.

Arella put a hand on my forehead. "Look at that, your fever is gone." She smiled, heading back to the window. "You need to rest but I'll come by later to check on you. Now, now we wait."

It took some time and some more treatments of Eco but I recovered. Arella was too proud of herself to keep her discovery quiet, and though the monks were angry, that rage quickly subsided. Light Eco channeling was an exceedingly rare gift and I was of no use to them dead. With time and more research on the matter it was eventually decided that without at least some Eco in my system, my body would start to destroy itself. My powers, already previously believed to be legend were becoming stranger with each discovery we found about them.

"Mai, I swear to the gods above if you don't start paying attention to me I am gonna punch you. Probably in the jaw." Arella said, exasperated, snapping her fingers near my ear. "I've only said your name twice now." She scoffed as I turned to look at her.

"Sorry, Rel." I muttered, clearing my throat. "What's up? Did you knock your bucket over again or something?"

"No. But I might dump it on you if you stay in whatever la-la land you've been in all damn day." Her expression softened then, and she sighed as she reached down to grasp the handle of the bucket at her feet. "Seriously. You've been lost in your own head all day. You were off when I got you this morning, and you're off now." She looked straight at me, and not for the first time she said "The past is behind you, Mai."

I nodded, looking away from her gaze. Arella had been through her own share of garbage, but it never seemed to control her the way it controlled me. She breezed through life, and I still lagged in certain places. "I know, Rel." I let out a huff of air. "I just. There's been a lot that's happened. And now with Father gone..."  
"He'd be proud of you, but I tell you that all the time. Do you really think he'd want you wallowing like this?" She tilted her head, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Just try to cheer up a little. He wouldn't want you like this."

"Finished?" A cool voice echoed from behind us, causing us to jump Sara regarded us coolly from the doorway, arms crossed. She walked forward then, glancing around at the floor. "Acceptable." She said, turning to us. "Candles replaced?"

I gestured to the box full of half dead candles "The old ones are there, the new ones are up and lit.

"Fabulous." Sara nodded, turning on her heel to exit the room. We gathered our supplies and followed silently. "Are you ready for today?" She asked, still looking forward.

"Oh, I've been ready!" Arella responded with a grin.

"Yes." I said shortly.

"Then, Arella, you first." Sara said, taking a sudden turn deeper into the Temple, and pushing through a large door.

The courtyard area of the temple was hidden high on the mountain, but a fairly good size. While the sun blazed above and it was almost too warm for plants to grow, where sand should have been was a lush green grass. Little flowers dotted the lawn here and there, out of place in the desert setting. We put our cleaning things down next to the door and found our bags sitting nearby; Sara had brought them up after she had decided to have us scrub floors as punishment for our lateness to lesson today.

"We are almost finished here," Sara said slowly, deliberately. She never was one much for words and long talking sessions seemed to tire her. She had never really explained why and when Arella had pressed Seem for more information about her, she was not granted the explanation. Sara was one of very few warriors left within the Temple. Several had been killed during the Dark Maker attack but if there was one thing to be certain, she was the strongest of them. She reached back to tie her swath of dark hair into a high pony-tail as she spoke. "Tomorrow, you must prove yourselves. Even I... can not protect you in the city." She scowled. "You must be ready."

She motioned for Arella to step forward, and she did, standing from where she had been kneeling next to her bag. I took a seat near the wall. Clutched in her hands were the green weapons that had been designed just for her, though these were harmless replicas meant for sparring. They looked like slices, but with a deeply serrated edge. Besides these, her only other weapon was a red-eco pistol. She got into a fighting stance and locked eyes with Sara, who did the same.

"Do you think you will make it?" Sara asked quietly, locking eyes with Arella.

"Of course I do." Arella smirked, and rushed forward.

She moved quickly, at almost a blinding speed. bringing one of the sickles down across Sara's body, sending sparks flying off her armor. Sara grunted but only took a half step back, before drawing her own weapon. It was a sword, not dissimilar to the ones that the Marauders carried.

Using replicas, neither of them would get hurt as they lunged at each other, but it was equally as fun to watch.

Sara kicked Arella in the stomach, sending her backward a few paces as the winded girl coughed. "You let your guard down, even still, after you attack. If you can not kill in a single blow, what are you to do?" Sara said flatly, regaining her fighting stance. "Focus." Arella glared back, flying forward again at Sara with a series of wild slashes. Against any other foe, Arella might have stood a chance, but Sara blocked with her sword at an incredible rate. I could tell Arella's frustration was going and with a cry that was almost feral she redoubled her attacks, eventually landing one in Sara's side, sending her stumbling to the side.

Sara gasped and looked surprised for a moment before she lashed back, knocking Arella to the ground who rolled away from a blow that, in an actual combat setting would have killed her before leaping to her feet kicking at Sara again, landing a boot against her jaw. Before she could recover, Arella had made it around her back and had the edge of her weapon pressed against Sara's neck, and another against her back. "Kill." She said simply, panting. I clapped from the sidelines as Sara smiled faintly.

"Very good. But remember..." She said, "Against a stronger foe you must rely on your partner. You are not meant just for fighting." Arella nodded, understanding.  
There was a reason Arella's skill set was close combat. She was not a regular warrior. In any society that relied on fighting for survival, you had to have a good set of doctors, or healers. And Arella was one of the few with the gift to heal. She'd been perfecting this craft with the monks since she was a little girl, using both modern medicines and a mixture of green eco to save those who fought on the front lines. It was important she knew how to handle herself in an altercation but she was not to just be thrown into combat on a whim.

"Arella, go see Trance to finish your lesson for today." Sara spoke quietly. "I will see you tomorrow at the Arena."

Arella bowed and left the courtyard, the door shutting with a clink behind her. Trance was the one who helped her with her lessons on how to be a Healer, though I had only seen him a handful of the times we had come to the Temple.

"Now, then" Sara turned to me. I stood accordingly, grasping my own weapon.

It was a precursor rod, roughly a food in length. I held it out and slid my thumb over a button and it extended until it was about a foot longer than I was tall with intricate precursor lettering and runes across it.

It had been an ancient artifact left at the temple so long ago, no one could remember who it had originally belonged to. But it was the only weapon known to channel Light Eco, and so it was bestowed to me to use. As it clicked open, I tapped into the Eco in my own body, allowing it to run fourth to the front of my skin. I felt power at my fingertips and the runes on the staff glowed.

"And now, Mai, for your last lesson..." Sara said, resuming her stance on the other side of the court yard.


End file.
